The Step-By-Step Plan That Turns Hesitant Dogs Into Happy Swimmers

I’m sharing my step-by-step plan that turns hesitant dogs into happy swimmers by building confidence one stage at a time. You’ll learn how to create positive associations with water, keep the process fun, and set your dog up for success every step of the way.
Transcript Summary:
I've got a five-step process, and the sixth step is actually getting them out into a swim. But five steps to get them conditioned and to put controls in place that for the crazy dogs that like to swim, we are gonna add some criteria to that behavior.

And for the dogs who are a little bit worried, we're gonna give you five steps that you can teach your dog to love water. Step number one, you need to buy yourself one of those plastic kiddie pools.

Now, you could start with this in your living room. I do it outside. But have at it. If you want to do it in your living room. Because all we want to do is shape the dog to jump in, throw some cookies in the pool. Once they're in, tell them “search”, they eat the cookies, they jump out, give them a lower value cookie when they jump out.

That's all that we want in step one that they go, “Well, I don't know why you want me in here.” There's no water in here, guys. Remember this is your living room. No water. It's an empty pool.

You might want to put a rock in the middle. I like to put a rock in the middle, more on that later. Especially if it's outside it won't blow away, but I use it for the training. Jump in, get cookies. If your dog likes to tug, we can tug when they're in there and we're just shaping them to get in and get out.

Once that's going tickety-boo, I want you to add a name and three different behaviors. So, I just tell my dogs “Go get in” which I think is really a lame name. Last week I had a student here and I suggested she use the cue “dunkaroo”. “Dunkaroo” doesn't sound anything like anything else we use so it's very specific, “go and jump into the water”.

Even though there's no water right now, I get it, there's no water. Eventually ‘dunkaroo’ is really gonna mean water. So, step one is just shaping. Step two is adding a cue, which means you're gonna walk around the pool and you're gonna give your dog cookies on the outside. So, the pool's on the inside, the dog’s on the outside. You're just gonna give them cookies for not jumping across and going in the pool.

And if they go “Wait, there's better cookies on the inside.”, just get further away and then stop, ask them to sit and then give them the cue so that they can jump in and get more cookies. Eventually you want to be able to walk with the dog on the inside so that they're closer to the pool.

Now, some dogs might jump in and jump out, kind of like musical chairs. Like “Is it now you want me to do this? Do I jump in there now?” We want the dog to not jump in until you give them their cue. And it's very, very clear. Empty pool. There's nothing driving them crazy saying, “Oh, I got to get in here because look at all my friends are swimming.” No.

Just an empty pool. You don't go in there until I give you the cue. Now, for those of you who have dogs that are crazy, you might have to stay at this step a little bit longer. Adding now three behaviors, sit, down, and spin.

If your dog doesn't know how to spin, it's super easy. You can go to the YouTube video that I have on target training, or you could get super simple just put a cookie in your hand and use it as a lure.

I want the dog to do those three specific behaviors. For number one the sit, they're gonna have the sensation eventually of water on their butt. “Ooh. Don't like that.” And so that's the first introduction to, “This is something you may or may not like at first but promise you're gonna learn to love it.”

Number two is the down. For two reasons. Number one, the dog can cool off a lot easier if they're in that down position. Number two, it's an easier way for them to not be a problem if they're sharing a pool with other dogs. But I really like it because it submerses their whole body, and we see what they do and don't like about this water before we take them into a lake or a river to swim.

And the third one, the spin, is because there is water in there, it starts sloshing around and they're gonna feel water splashing up on their face. And we're gonna overcome all of these challenges just with those three little behaviors.

And you're gonna keep tugging, which there'll be some slushing there. If your dog doesn't like tugging, that's fine. We can still throw cookies in and tell them to eat the cookies even when there's water in there. So now we're on to step three. Step three we're gonna leave the pool. You just got to find a hose, a garden hose, and a piece of concrete.

So, if you live in the country, you're gonna have to go visit a friend. And what I want you to do is you're going to just wet the concrete first, and you're going to tell your dog to search. And so, they're just eating the cookies off the wet concrete. “Oh, I can do that.”